Twelve-year-old Marius Schneider was only a child when he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, a life-threatening condition in which sticky mucus builds up in the lungs, gradually decreasing one's ability to breathe.

“We were desperately waiting for an organ, waiting for a call every day,” said Lars Schneider, Marius' father.

But as the days stretched on without a lung donor, Marius, who lives in Germany, was in so dire a spot that he survived only with the continual aid of a ventilation machine and a heart-lung machine, the Daily Mail reports. "He was living in a state of almost perpetual anesthesia," said Marius's physician, Professor Dr Axel Haverich.